Head Coach Paul Warne admits his Derby County team need to make a step up in athleticism as they prepare to compete in the upcoming 2024/25 Sky Bet Championship campaign.
The Rams will begin their first Championship campaign in two seasons when they head to Ewood Park to play Blackburn Rovers on Friday 9th August (8pm kick-off).
Derby come into the new season off the back of a good run-out and performance against Spanish top-flight outfit Real Valladolid last weekend, claiming a 2-1 win and giving players a chance to gain more match minutes and for new signings to bed into the squad.
Warne spoke to RamsTV to discuss the pre-season campaign, managing his 100th Rams game and opening the new season against Blackburn.
On the pre-season campaign…
We had a reasonable break after the end of last season and a long-ish pre-season, so to speak. I think we're as near to being ready as we can be, as every other manager will say. The lads have looked okay and we still need to improve a little bit, but it's about getting the best out of our group and I believe the lads have a good understanding of how we want to play.
I've said this in a million interviews, pre-season for a manager isn’t great. It's great in that you meet new people, get new people involved in your culture, and try to get them integrated. They're the most important things. It is also about trying to keep getting them as fit as you can without injuring them. That is a difficult task because there's always an invisible line. You don't know where that is, especially with new players.
We weren't amazing in all the pre-season games. We were alright in a few and the latter two we were good, against Barnsley and Real Valladolid. On the whole, I think we've come into the season with, obviously, confidence of being promoted last season. We're trying to do something decent this year and I'm happy with the new additions and I'm happy with the group - buy you are never fully sure about what you've got. That's the truth because, in every pre-season game, you play an opposition that may play a different shape and a different team.
On the whole, pre-season was good and we got some bodies in early, which helped. We start the season on Friday in a pretty upbeat manner.
On the challenges of going from League One to Championship level…
There are massive differences. One of the biggest things is athleticism. Everything is intensified, as it is again if you step up to the Premier League. From League Two to League One, I don't think there's a massive difference, but from League One to the Championship there is.
Apart from Ipswich Town, in the last six years, we have found out that the teams that get promoted from League One often finish in the bottom six because the step-up is big. It's the athleticism, which is a massive part.
And there's an increase in quality. In League Two, you give up five good chances then one might go in. In League One, you give up five good chances then two or three might go in at the worst case. If you give five chances up in the Championship, there's a good chance they'll score three or four. Attention to detail is vital and mistakes get punished more because the players are significantly better.
If you look at the teams that are in the Championship, apart from the three that have come down and the three that have come up, the other 18 are established Championship teams. The other difference is that their strength of bench is frightening. I love having nine on the bench and I'm not moaning about that, but if you look at the starting line-ups for everyone this weekend, they've got 20 solid Championship players. When you go up, you have to try and sign as many players as you can who can play at that level.
On preparing for his 100th game in charge of the Rams on Friday…
It's a massive honour. I've never made any qualms about managing this great football club. To get to 100 games is an achievement. We work hard and diligently to try and take this club to where it wants to go. I'm doing a speech this week with the lads about the history of this club. I want them to understand the past, the present, and the future where this club is going.
On what he expects from John Eustace’s Blackburn Rovers…
John's teams are always well-organised and not too dissimilar to ours. Defensively, they are always very solid and hard to break down. They'll be wanting to start the season on a home win, quite obviously. They've brought some new additions in recently. There's all this talk about who's going to be there or who's not going to be there. And all we can do is prepare for how we think they're going to play.
If you watched us in all the pre-season games, we've played every system there is out there. So, all the best trying to guess how we're going to play as well!
Until the season gets going, it is a little bit of guesswork. You think certain players are going to play in certain positions. John does have a certain style to his teams, as we do and we're well-prepared for a tough game. Every game is a tough one but the opening one, when the home fans are all pleased and turn up in numbers, is tough.